How was the meeting with the admin meeting last week at BASIS?

[Anonymous]

Racist teachers? Don't you realize that almost half of the teachers are black?? That's a pretty damned ludicrous statement to make, were it not so inflammatory. And yet here you are whining about "pot stirrers" when you lob a bomb like that?

And respect? Perhaps you consider it "respectful" behavior for kids to steal or vandalize property?

[Anonymous]

What happens when the trimester grades come out and it turns out that there was no negative impact to the 8La Chemistry grades, exactly as was already promised and guaranteed by the HOS and Chemistry teacher two weeks ago?

Will we get an apology from the pot-stirrers? Will they apologize for characterizing the Chemistry teacher and HOS as not doing the right thing, for characterizing them as people who are not to be believed or taken at their word? Should we carry on and publicly whine for weeks and weeks demanding a loud and public apology from them if we don't immediately get it? Should we demand their permanent withdrawal from DCUM, as has been demanded of the Dean?

Think about it... Those have been your expectations of others. What if the rest of us expect the same of you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After two long and grueling weeks of this pot-stirring nonsense, it should be abundantly obvious that whatever point you've been trying to make here is long lost and everyone but you has moved on.

I seriously, SERIOUSLY doubt there's still a bonafide issue or concern among the kids. Seriously, I DOUBT any of your own kids have a concern about it, nor have any of you recently had a conversation with anyone who has. Because if you had, then why didn't you set them straight, since you the facts and should know better. Or, instead, did you irresponsibly and dishonestly just stir the pot with them? That question was dodged above. So, where's the REAL problem here?

But more to the point - Even if there were at this point a pointless apology by the Head of School and Dean or whatever else, I'm also at this point convinced that the ranter would only move on to continue ranting about the next trivial thing to come along. Because that's DEFINITELY the sense I get here.

I frankly think your credibility is suspect, I think your motives are suspect, and I don't think you can be trusted to not keep stirring the pot with everything and anything, particularly given the way this has been grotesquely blown out of proportion, with every last thing attacked, skewed, distorted and nitpicked to death at every step.

As one of the people who originally addressed this issue when it was first raised, intending only to attest to genuine fear and confusion on the parts of parents and children, and then became absolutely infuriated when that fear and confusion was ridiculed here by fellow Basis parents, I just want to say that I do not believe a single parent who has been participating in ongoing conversations with a variety of real people (not on DCUM), has done anything but have their kids reassure their classmates and attempt to alleviate the confusion of the parents involved in the incident in question. The vitriol being spewed here about how there should have been no confusion in the first place does not and cannot alter that simple fact. I refuse to believe that a single Basis parent would knowingly increase the anxieties of any child or parent involved in this unfortunate incident. I know of no one who has, and I do not believe that any Basis parent could possibly be that evil. And although the first grading period ends soon, I am not in agreement with the idea that apologies would be "pointless," however belated. They are owed, they should be offered, and students can dismiss them as "that was so last week" but I believe at least some would appreciate the effort. Especially if it does not appear pro forma. The same way you make a miscreant on the playground apologise for malfeasance, notwithstanding the fact that the child stands there defiantly unrepentant, and smirks while he offers his apology, these men need to do it. Until these two men admit to making an error and then not doing what was necessary to cure it, e.g. apologising immediately and doing backsies, this community will not genuinely move on.

But to be quite frank, I think your credibility and motives are suspect, because as much as you say everyone has moved on except the mysterious ranter and pot stirrer and crazy lady, you, and another recognisable poster (aka insulting our intelligence), and others, clearly have not moved on. Are you angry at your spouses? Are you off your meds? Do you need to adjust your foil hat? All of you are behaving absolutely disgracefully and my sincere although not polite advice is that you all shut up.

[Anonymous]

Well, I think the poster who just lobbed the "racism" grenade just proved the point that was made earlier tonight, that it's just going to be one imaginary "controversy" after another.

There's nothing but trolling going on here. That's now proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, I think the poster who just lobbed the "racism" grenade just proved the point that was made earlier tonight, that it's just going to be one imaginary "controversy" after another.

There's nothing but trolling going on here. That's now proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Please have the good grace to listen to someone who is presently a fellow Basis parent, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

And to the poster earlier who said that racism cannot exist because half the faculty are black, first, you have enormous teacher turnover, second you have the other half of the faculty, as illustrated below, and third, teachers and administrators can be "racist" against their own race because they have internalized the negative messages to such an extent that they have become part of their own belief system, and perhaps worst of all as the thread about EOTP illustrates, they can treat all students as future criminals who deserve to be shouted at for no reason

BASIS parent - We will be going elsewhere when middle school ends. Have been debating whether to leave earlier. My DC is not a struggling student but I am very concerned with the "head in the sand" BASIS boosters. They make it convenient for BASIS not to improve and it could be a strong school for all students. Yes, racism does occur primarily from the teachers. My DC has been subjected to it many times from the stereotypical assumptions to the lack of discipline for bullies that happen to be white. For example, my DC was being seriously bullied by one and ended up being disciplined when he made an inappropriate comment about the child to a teacher. When I arrived at the school I had to get him medical treatment for the unrecognized action that had occurred prior to the statement. However, that is not why we will be leaving; I was subject to much more serious racism growing up and you can not protect your kids from it when they are an adult so this is the best time to learn how to deal with it.

We will be leaving because I am disappointed in the academics which the Boosters would see if they would stop parroting the Booster line. English is much better this year but still not to the level of Latin or Deal. They tout math but they teach to the test (process-oriented) and are so focused on eusuring that they are following the Arizona standards that the critical underlying foundation is missing. My DC has always received an A+ score in math at BASIS (DC was strong going in) so I was astounded this year to see that there were critical gaps in his mathematical foundation at the middle school level. I have begun supplementing these foundational gaps at home. I feel sorry for the poor children who think they are getting something that they are not and whose parents either don't have the literacy to identify or correct or the money for outside assistance. I am just hoping these kids don't become statistics when they assume they are great in math to seriously struggle on the SAT or in College later. I wish the Boosters would do something to help rather than be focused on the type of child coming to the school or blaming it on the children or parents. It would benefit everyone because the education would have to improve.

I do not post on the listserve because the political messages last year turned me off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happens when the trimester grades come out and it turns out that there was no negative impact to the 8La Chemistry grades, exactly as was already promised and guaranteed by the HOS and Chemistry teacher two weeks ago?

Will we get an apology from the pot-stirrers? Will they apologize for characterizing the Chemistry teacher and HOS as not doing the right thing, for characterizing them as people who are not to be believed or taken at their word? Should we carry on and publicly whine for weeks and weeks demanding a loud and public apology from them if we don't immediately get it? Should we demand their permanent withdrawal from DCUM, as has been demanded of the Dean?

Think about it... Those have been your expectations of others. What if the rest of us expect the same of you?

Not, I think, my expectations, and not the kind of idiotic baiting I would ordinarily take notice of, however, I will absolutely not allow anyone to lump the Chemistry teacher in with the others involved in this disaster. She clearly had no idea what the Dean was going to do when she called him into the classroom, and was too intimidated at the time he threatened the grades of her kids to contradict him. For all we know she believed it was an (unfair) punishment that he was fully authorized to implement. The only "word" from the HOS was that email to parents the same night the incident occurred. While there was "word" to the students by the Chemistry teacher, it was not until the following week, when she sought the assistance of another staff member, because she astutely perceived that some of the children had not recovered from the incident itself and that some children were still in fear for their grades. As others have repeated ad infinitum, the encounter with the Dean left such a deep impression on some students that the reassurance from the Chemistry teacher was not enough. The Dean has had absolutely nothing to say on the subject to date, and simple psychology would tell anyone that the person who had apparent authority to make the threat and did so would be the best person to undo the damage. The next best person would be the HOS. The bestest would have been, and would still be, both of them together. I never expected my child's grade to suffer, although no one should underestimate the difficulty involved in communicating with and calming down a 13 year old under such circumstances. I am fairly sure that the vast majority of students and parents at this late date are certain the incident will not affect their chemistry grades. Whether the time they spent in (to you unwarranted and inexplicable) limbo on the matter affected their overall grades, or their overall attitude towards Basis DC, is something that can never be established with definitive certainty because we do not have sufficient data points. Although we will be able to see how many in 8La do not return for 9th grade. Bound to be another downer the way it was last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I think the poster who just lobbed the "racism" grenade just proved the point that was made earlier tonight, that it's just going to be one imaginary "controversy" after another.

There's nothing but trolling going on here. That's now proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Please have the good grace to listen to someone who is presently a fellow Basis parent, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

And to the poster earlier who said that racism cannot exist because half the faculty are black, first, you have enormous teacher turnover, second you have the other half of the faculty, as illustrated below, and third, teachers and administrators can be "racist" against their own race because they have internalized the negative messages to such an extent that they have become part of their own belief system, and perhaps worst of all as the thread about EOTP illustrates, they can treat all students as future criminals who deserve to be shouted at for no reason

BASIS parent - We will be going elsewhere when middle school ends. Have been debating whether to leave earlier. My DC is not a struggling student but I am very concerned with the "head in the sand" BASIS boosters. They make it convenient for BASIS not to improve and it could be a strong school for all students. Yes, racism does occur primarily from the teachers. My DC has been subjected to it many times from the stereotypical assumptions to the lack of discipline for bullies that happen to be white. For example, my DC was being seriously bullied by one and ended up being disciplined when he made an inappropriate comment about the child to a teacher. When I arrived at the school I had to get him medical treatment for the unrecognized action that had occurred prior to the statement. However, that is not why we will be leaving; I was subject to much more serious racism growing up and you can not protect your kids from it when they are an adult so this is the best time to learn how to deal with it.

We will be leaving because I am disappointed in the academics which the Boosters would see if they would stop parroting the Booster line. English is much better this year but still not to the level of Latin or Deal. They tout math but they teach to the test (process-oriented) and are so focused on eusuring that they are following the Arizona standards that the critical underlying foundation is missing. My DC has always received an A+ score in math at BASIS (DC was strong going in) so I was astounded this year to see that there were critical gaps in his mathematical foundation at the middle school level. I have begun supplementing these foundational gaps at home. I feel sorry for the poor children who think they are getting something that they are not and whose parents either don't have the literacy to identify or correct or the money for outside assistance. I am just hoping these kids don't become statistics when they assume they are great in math to seriously struggle on the SAT or in College later. I wish the Boosters would do something to help rather than be focused on the type of child coming to the school or blaming it on the children or parents. It would benefit everyone because the education would have to improve.

I do not post on the listserve because the political messages last year turned me off.

It is OK to leave, it's not a religion or worse a cult. If it doesn't work for your child just find a better place. It would be horrible parenting if you didn't.

[Anonymous]

TL;DR

PP, you may mean well but at this point there's far too much baiting and trolling and firehosed exaggerating and commingling of issues going on in this thread and the whole thing has been going on and on for far too long. I have to tune it out. Toxic and useless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TL;DR

PP, you may mean well but at this point there's far too much baiting and trolling and firehosed exaggerating and commingling of issues going on in this thread and the whole thing has been going on and on for far too long. I have to tune it out. Toxic and useless.

One could encourage the PP to leave the school, as clearly there's no genuine interest in actually solving anything, since this has just been nasty online discussion without meaningful solutions and without ever actually engaging anyone from the school - but even if the PP were to leave the school, I wager that if the PP were at Latin or Deal there would still be an endless litany of DCUM complaints and agitations over each and every perceived slight or failing - because, guess what - those schools aren't perfect either, they also have plenty of problems and shortcomings of their own which anyone could nitpick at.

[Anonymous]

I am the Original Poster, and was really just asking how the meeting went-and for the record, I have no replied to any posts on this thread since the first page of comments. But wow, just wow. First off, the teacher in question is INCREDIBLE, dedicated, patient, kind and gives every kid the benefit of the doubt-it is NOT about her, and if there are complaints that this was a rookie mistake, it is precisely her fantastic qualities as a teacher that may have led to her trusting the kids with the candy. Second, even if some kids did understand they were not to be failed, some of the kids did NOT, so what is the harm, in a school where accountability in its students is paramount to the school's success, to be accountable for what was said upfront and clear the air and apologize for any action that was taken by admin that caused harm and stress to any child? Third, can we please just drop this and let the admin deal with it rather than arguing something we cannot do anything about here-if you still have issues with it, email Sean Aiken, Carol McGarvey or whomever else you want, but no need to keep the snarky banter up here where all it does is harm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am the Original Poster, and was really just asking how the meeting went-and for the record, I have no replied to any posts on this thread since the first page of comments. But wow, just wow. First off, the teacher in question is INCREDIBLE, dedicated, patient, kind and gives every kid the benefit of the doubt-it is NOT about her, and if there are complaints that this was a rookie mistake, it is precisely her fantastic qualities as a teacher that may have led to her trusting the kids with the candy. Second, even if some kids did understand they were not to be failed, some of the kids did NOT, so what is the harm, in a school where accountability in its students is paramount to the school's success, to be accountable for what was said upfront and clear the air and apologize for any action that was taken by admin that caused harm and stress to any child? Third, can we please just drop this and let the admin deal with it rather than arguing something we cannot do anything about here-if you still have issues with it, email Sean Aiken, Carol McGarvey or whomever else you want, but no need to keep the snarky banter up here where all it does is harm.

+1000

I think everyone knows that the Chemistry teacher is indeed INCREDIBLE, and I think all the other Chemistry teachers were saying was that kids this age eat lab materials that are not even candy - flour, salt, etc. I think they were more reacting to the posters who were calling the kid who did it a criminal. Everyone who has her knows that in addition to being an excellent teacher, she cares tremendously about her kids. I think she should be applauded for doing something herself when she saw kids were still worried about their grades a week later.

I agree with absolutely everything you said here, and hope it ends here.